I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann: book review

I Dreamed of Africa (1991) is the memoir of Italian Kuki Gallmann (1943-) who moved to Kenya in 1972 with her husband Paolo and son Emanuele.

They bought land in Laikipia, creating the Ol Ari Nyiro Cattle Ranch, before transforming it into a park for the conservation of animals. Fourteen years after Emanuele, they had a daughter Sveva. This memoir is more about the memory of Paolo and Emanuele and their lives together before (and after) they were both tragically killed in separate incidents in 1980 and 1983.

It details the men in her life, their love of Africa, adventure, snakes, and animals. It celebrates their lives, their courage, their warmth, while simultaneously being poignant and tragic. The writing is carthatic as Gallman processes her love and admiration for Paolo and Emanuele, and her grief, when she continues to live alone, with her dogs, in the ranch they built together.

Divided into four parts: (1) Before, (2) Paolo, (3) Emanuele, and (4) After – with black and white photographs of her family, and maps of the region – it is part-memoir, part-travelogue, part-drama, part-documentary, and part-tribute. It is an evocative and emotional memoir that is well written, interesting, intriquing, and gripping.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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